


The Rise of Voltron

by xHalfPrincex



Series: Voltron ReWritten [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Confused Lance (Voltron), Cuban Lance (Voltron), Family Secrets, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I wrote this instead of studying, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Lance (Voltron)-centric, Lance is observant, Not Beta Read, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Refugee Lance, Secret Past, Secret Tags, we go down like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:54:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23617102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xHalfPrincex/pseuds/xHalfPrincex
Summary: "But as said before, Lance was always one with his head in the clouds, and the newly formed team couldn't imagine the trials and tribulations that they would find themselves in. And family secrets that would be uncovered that will shake the foundation of a certain Paladin, but that is for later on in the story, this is now."- Chapter 1
Series: Voltron ReWritten [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1700002
Comments: 13
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

Lance didn't really know what pushed him to join the Galaxy Garrison, one of the many branches in the military. Maybe when he saw how his sister had signed up for the military*, he thought he could follow in her footsteps. Maybe it was when Takashi Shirogane had come to his school to recruit young students. If that was the case, Lance knew he had fallen in love with the pilot seat during the trial simulation. Lance felt like he could list a whole number of reasons, but his mind would always bring up one, and that is how he felt connected with space. Since a child, the Cuban boy longed for the stars, the chance to explore the outer regions of the galaxy. His parents always warned him about his dreams, his siblings would joke on how aliens could abduct him from a space mission. However, the young boy didn't pay attention to them saying this; instead, he continued his pursuit for adventure.

When the time came to sign up for the Galaxy Garrison, he was able to persuade his long-time friend, Hunk, to sign up for the engineering department. The Cuban knew that while his friend loved creating in the kitchen, he loved tinkering in the mechanic shop with his uncle. He was hesitant at first in joining the Garrison because of how far away it could be from his family, but with Lance with him there, he was more than positive in what his decision was going to be. The two friends had made a promise to be each other's pilot and engineer whenever they got the chance to do so. Lance knew he always had big dreams, and sometimes reaching for his dreams exhausted him, he knew he could always count on Hunk to pull him down to earth whenever he felt that he pushed himself beyond his limits. While Hunk was always hesitant to reach his dreams, he counted on Lance to give him a push in order to get on the right path toward his dream. The two were like two peas in a pod, never going anywhere without each other, always supporting each other ever since the age of 12. However, when the two signed up to go to space, neither one of them would have thought they would be saving Senior Officer Shirogane from the very Garrison they admired, alongside a drop-out and a mini genius.

Lance glanced at the pinned documents all around the walls of the rundown shack Keith had brought them to in the middle of the desert. Pictures of wall engravings, in the form of a Lion, seemed to take most of the space on the walls. Red strings attached to the pins led to other documents which led to more documents or pictures. In all honesty, he felt like the whole room reminded him of a conspiracy theorist movie. From where he and his other two classmates where he moved the thin curtain that covered the window and watched as Senior Officer Shirogane was talking with Keith. The way the two spoke each other, as if familiar to one another, reminded him how Keith and Junior Officer Warfeld** spoke together after Senior Officer Shirogane had disappeared during the Kerberos mission. He quickly closed the curtain away as he saw the two beginning to turn around and approach the shack. Hearing the door open, Hunk and Pidge glanced at their direction and stood up from where they sat on the floor, tinkering away with Pidge's homemade technology. Keith had approached a covered piece of furniture and pulled away the cover that concealed what was underneath and revealed even more conspiracy weird stuff.

While the two had kept talking Lance felt a strange pull of energy(?), he didn't have the right word to describe it, for what seemed like the hundredth time since their arrival to the shack. He remembered feeling this strange pull when he had first arrived at the Garrison but he thought it to be him being nervous in a new environment. Too busy with trying to figure out what it was, he barely heard what Keith was talking about when he heard his name being called out by the Senior Officer. The adult stretched out his hand to greet him, Lance did as well, but before he connected their hands Lance glanced down to see it was the new prosthetic arm that he would be shaking. It wasn't that he was uncomfortable in shaking hands with the alien tech, but some form of energy that the arm emitted was what sent a shiver down his spine. It felt the same as the strange energy he felt emitting from the desert, but it was more sinister, almost as if it was tainted. Not wanting to the seem hesitant to the higher ranking officer he gave him a smile and quickly shook hands with him. Pidge was the next to shake hands with him after introducing himself and Hunk. It didn't surprise the Cuban when he heard the younger boy ask about the rest of Shirogane's crew. The boy was practically obsessed with the Kerberos mission, it was easily seen when he would get angry when he would hear someone talking bad about the crew. It almost made Lance wonder what was going on, but he wasn't one to pry. Yet.

Lance couldn't imagine what it would feel like to lose one's memories, not being able to remember your past, would scare even the bravest of persons. And here was his hero, his idol, unsure of what to do with lost memories of his alien encounters. Veronica had told him stories of friends who went to battle and never returned the same. She told him how some would block out everything that had happened to them during their time in battle, an aftereffect of the trauma they experienced she said. Sometimes it would affect them for the whole life others temporarily, she had seen many having to be discharged from the military because of their mental health being unhealthy.

"Sorry to interrupt, but back to the aliens. Where are they now? Are they coming? Are they coming for us? Where are they at this very moment?" Lance looked over to his nervous friend, his hands waving about as he spoke. There were three levels to Hunk's nervousness, verbal rambling, vomiting, and cooking, a lot of cooking. Lance was surprised that his friend had yet to vomit over the course of a few hours.

The three cadets and Keith looked over at the stressed-out officer as he explained that the aliens spoke of obtaining a weapon, Voltron. Lance's eyebrows furrowed, that was the same word Pidge had told them when they were on the roof before everything went to utter chaos. None of this could have been a coincidence. Shirogane appearing out of nowhere on an alien ship, Keith being in the vicinity at the exact moment, the strange pull of energy that kept coming from the desert, and lastly Voltron. Lance was confused as to what to think of this whole situation. It wasn't that he was scared, he was just unsure of how to proceed with what was happening. His mind kept going through a million possible outcomes as to what could happen to them, but none could have prepared him when they saw how the rock formation in front of them resembled the Fraunhofer line Hunk had shown them back in the shack. This was definitely not a coincidence. Lance had always lived by the motto that things happen for a reason, whether they be good or bad reasons only time could tell. However, this made it unsure. Lance didn't even notice he had spoken out loud on how freaky this was until he saw Pidge nodding beside him.

They continued on their way following as Hunk led them to their destination. In the cave, there were even more of the Lion carvings that Keith had found. The pull of energy Lance felt seemed to intensify the more they walked into the cave. He could practically feel a headache on the edge of beginning, but not in a painful manner, almost as if something was telling him something, or at least trying to get into his head. Lance glanced to his left to see a full-body engraving of the Blue Lion Keith spoke about, wanting to see more of the carving, he used his hand to remove some of the sand that had covered some of the lion's form when it began to glow. Not just the one carving, but all carvings that they could see, there was more of the blue glow that seemed to go further into the cave, but before they could make their way there, the ground underneath them collapsed. They each gave out a surprised yell as they went sliding into what was below them, the ground felt wet as they had entered an underwater ravine. Seeing the end of the tunnel, Lance braced for impact as his body fell into a small pond at the bottom, the rest soon followed after. The Cuban was the first to get up and look at what was before them.

The Blue Lion, exactly like the one that was found on the cave walls, was looking down on them. This Lion was what Lance had been feeling pull him into the desert, a blue giant mechanical Lion. Around the mechanical beast was a blue force field, almost as if it was protecting it from any damage that could be done to it by anyone or anything. Next to him, he heard Pidge ask if this was Voltron, but something in his head told him that it wasn't, at least not exactly. Keith was the first to make his way toward the barrier and the rest followed soon after him; however, Lance couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched, not by his companions, but by the Lion, almost as if it was reading him. He voiced his thought of being watched as they made their way ever so closer, no one else was getting the same vibe as him, so why was it only affecting him? He heard Keith ask how they should get through the force field before them under his breath before giving him a sarcastic answer.

"Maybe you just have to knock," Lance let out a small yelp of shock as the barrier around the Lion seemed to disappear. He was so distracted that he didn't even notice how a blue wisp*** followed his hand before disappearing. The five of them watched as the Lion's eyes lit up, and the engravings around it lit up the same blue as the ones they found in the cave above them. In his mind, he saw five Lions, each of varying sizes and colors come together to create this huge robot that seemed to be hovering in the sky. Before he could say anything else, he could hear Hunk talking followed by Pidge asking where the rest of the Lions were at.

It was then that the Lion crouched down so its head was directly in front of Lance, with its mouth open and a ramp leading inside, it was almost like it was enticing Lance to go inside. The cadet glanced at his companions, each with their own expression of hesitation before he made his way into the Lion. The energy coming off it felt exactly what had been pulling him to the desert since he was 15 and entered the Garrison. He helped himself into the cockpit, inside the Lion's head, to see an empty chair, almost as if it was waiting for him. As he sat down and got comfortable, the chair moved forward up to where he presumed the eyes of the Lion were. He watched as holographic screens appeared around him, all in a foreign language he didn't know how to read. Pidge and Hunk, who he didn't even hear follow him inside let impressed gasp at the technology around them. Before any of them spoke, the black screen in front of them turned on to give them the same exact view of what they just came from.

Beside him, he heard as Hunk talked how they were inside a futuristic alien cat head, but Lance was too busy with something talking, but not with words, inside his head. Instructions were being transferred into the pilot's mind on how to turn on the ship, it felt strange to him, but the feeling he got from it felt comfortable in a strange way. He didn't know how to describe the feeling exactly, he only hoped that the guys behind him had heard the same thing.

"Did you guys hear that?" He glanced back at them, each giving him a confused expression as to what he was talking about.

"I think it's talking to me," he said as he looked at the holographic screen before him, on the right side there appeared to be a constellation map from the galaxy and to the left a keypad. He hovered over the keypad and allowed for the Lion once again tell him what to do, following its instructions, he pressed the screen tiles to turn the Lion on. They felt as the Lion stood on all four legs and let out a deafening roar, Lance on the other had admired how two handles appeared out of nowhere in reach of his hands. The cadet could feel how scared his friends were, and Lance not wanting the atmosphere to feel heavy, did what he did best, lighten the mood by crashing the lion into the cave wall to get out, he could have looked for another way out, but this was easier. Piloting the Blue Lion felt exhilarating, the feel of the handles in his hands, the maneuvering capabilities was beyond what the simulation and training fighter planes were capable of. The fluid motions from the Lion had felt like he was swimming in water, and the cool presence he felt coming from the Lion and into him seemed to further aid in that thought. However, it seemed that his fellow cadets and Senior Officer didn't share the same thoughts as him when he heard Keith telling him he was the worst pilot ever. Not his fault the Lion didn't have extra seats for them. For what Keith said, he made sure to do another roundabout before continuing on and pressing the accelerator, as if the giant cat wasn't fast enough it could apparently go even faster. He continued on testing the Lion's maneuvering capabilities on land, as he followed the instructions being sent to him, introducing him to new maneuvers, each different from the rest.

"Make it stop, make it stop!" Poor Hunk looked as if he was about to puke and Lance felt sorry for the guy.

"Sorry, buddy, but it's like it's on autopilot." He wasn't lying, sure the Lion was telling him what to do, and he was moving his hands following those instructions, but it's like the Lion was a part of him, using him to steer itself. They were connected to one another in a symbiotic way, and it felt comfortable, familial.

"Where are you going?" asked Keith.

"I said it's on autopilot! It's telling me there's an alien ship approaching Earth, and I think it wants us to stop it." Lance answered hurriedly. The Lion purred, or he assumed it purred.

It was Pidge who spoke up next in a tired tone, "What did it say exactly?"

Lance explained to the younger male that the Lion spoke no words but transmitted ideas into his mind. After telling them this, Hunk expressed his worries by asking them if they should just give up the Lion and hand it over to the aliens orbiting Earth. All eyes turned to the taller male as he kept rambling, and before Lance could speak up and tell them what the Lion said, officer Shirogane spoke up.

"You don't understand, these monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path. There is no bargaining with them, they won't stop until everything is dead." On saying that, everyone gave Hunk a pointed look as if saying, told you so. The Samoan looked at the older male before nodding and understanding the situation they were in.

Lance piloted them outside Earth's atmosphere and into space only for an alien ship to appear before them out of nowhere. The only way he could describe its appearance is that the aliens did a hyperjump to their exact coordinates. The ship was bigger than any human-made ship he had ever seen, heck it was bigger than any plane he had ever seen. It was of dark gray in color and an ominous purple glow that came off it. There wasn't any room to breathe for the five of them before the ship started to fire on them. Lance heard Pidge yell at him to get them out of there before he began evasive maneuvers, the maneuvers the Lion sent him were some that could not have been possible on any human-made ship he knew of. The cadet was glad that they didn't have to go up against the alien ship with a Garrison fighter ship if they did, there was no way they would have been able to avoid the lasers being shot at them.

He hit the thrusters giving them an extra boost to get away from the ship's range before turning back and using his left hand to push forward the handle to let out a blue laser beam in return. The beam was able to go through the front portion of the ship before making the middle of the ship set off explosions. Lance piloted closer to the ship to land on the side to use the Lion's claws to tear open the side of the alien ship. From where he was, he could hear the sound of nails on a chalkboard and the see the sparks of electricity coming from the friction caused by the metallic claws meeting the outside of the ship. As he piloted them away from aliens, they all heard more explosions coming from where the Lion had used its claws. Lance hit the accelerator once more, making sure that the ship was tailing them, trying to get it away from their home planet. As they tried to escape, Lance mentioned to them that the ship didn't appear to be shooting at them anymore; instead, it was chasing them, as if they were given orders to do so. He watched as the stars and planets he passed became blurs as they zoomed past them in an effort to lose their pursuers. The cadet wasn't paying any attention to how far they got until the senior officer mentioned Kerberos. Lance could feel that they were running out of options to get away from the ship, and he didn't know what the fuel source for this Lion was, so he started to get concerned at the possibility of running out of energy. The Cuban was practically begging at this point for a way out of this situation, and fast when a pocket in space opened up in front of them. Around the pocket were symbols, like the ones the Lion had on its screens. The Lion urged him to go through the wormhole, Lance shared what the Lion was saying to everyone else.

"Senior Officer Shirogane, you are our officer here, what should we do?" Lance asked as they all glanced at the adult in question.

"Whatever is happening here, the Lion knows more than we do," he began. "I say we trust it, but we're a team now, we should decide together."

The rest of the newly formed team nodded in confirmation.

"I guess that means we're all ditching classes tomorrow," Lance said before he flew the Blue Lion into the wormhole. Going inside the, weirdly timed, wormhole was more straining than Lance thought it was. The energy being emitted from the wormhole was pushing them back and if Lance could feel the pushing strain sitting down, he wondered how his teammates felt standing up. He assumed it felt worse. As they got out of the wormhole, they reappeared in front of a planet that looked like Earth, next to him he finally heard the vomiting sounds of one nervous Hunk, as he was busy doing that the Lion had sent the seventeen-year-old a displeasing sound, in which Lance silently apologized for his friend.

Behind him, Officer Shirogane spoke, "I don't recognize any of these planets, we must be a long way from home."

Lance looked down at the navigation screen to see the right side of the screen had changed the constellation map of the Milky Way galaxy into an entirely new one. The senior officer was right, there no constellation that looked familiar to him, and it was scaring him. How far away did the wormhole take them exactly? The Lion pushed into his mind again, pushing him to enter the planet's atmosphere once he caught his breath. However, before he told the rest of the team what the Lion had transmitted, he made sure to check the radar to see if the ship had followed them through the blue wormhole. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw no alien warship on their tail, pun not intended.

"The Lion wants us to head to that planet, I think it wants to go home," he felt a hand press his right shoulder, almost as if telling him to keep going, so he did. Entering the atmosphere almost felt like entering Earth's atmosphere, he felt everyone brace themselves by either them holding on Lance or the chair he was sitting on. In a matter of seconds, they flew past clouds and soon Hunk began to once again voice his opinion on the situation.

"Is it just me or is anyone else having second thoughts about flying through a mysterious wormhole? Why are we listening to a robotic Lion anyway?" Before Hunk could continue rambling, Lance cut him off.

"It got us away from that alien warship, didn't it?"

"I don't know if you noticed, but we're in an alien warship," said Keith in the most annoyed tone possible.

"Oh, are you scared?" teased Lance.

"With you at the helm? Terrified." Replied the older male. First off, thought Lance, rude.

"Alright knock it off," interrupted their officer. "No one is happy to be in this situation, but we are here now. If we want to get through this, we've got to do it together. First, we find out where we are headed, Lance?"

The pilot felt all eyes on him, his team waiting for him to give them the answers they wanted to hear, and honestly, he couldn't tell them anything. The Blue Lion had stopped communicating with him as soon as they had entered the planet's atmosphere. When he shared that with them the atmosphere in the cockpit grew tense. Lance grew up in a large household, and when his big brother Luis had his two kids, the family grew even more. Some form of sound was always heard, and the family was known to be loud, now Lance considered how quite everyone in Lion's head was and couldn't stand it anymore. He took his experience in annoying his older siblings as children and decided to let one rip.

"Wait! Wait, wait, wait! Shh!" That grabbed everyone's attention. "Listen. I think I hear something."

As he let it out in a slow manner the others got invested in the sound until they finally smelt the gas that Lance had passed. Watching them freak out and complain, he glanced outside to see a castle come into view, "But seriously guys, there is a castle up ahead."

The castle wasn't like anything he had ever seen before, five towers shone brightly as the sun, or he is assuming what is the sun, to hit them just right. White paint on a metal-like material with a blue coat made it seem surreal, a castle, like this, would never exist anywhere on Earth. They watched as the top of each tower gave off a blue light as they approached it, this really was surreal.

Lance flew the Lion down to the ground, and before they all headed out, the Japanese male cautioned them on entering unfamiliar territory. When they had all made their way out, the Lion had stood up and let out another one of its deafening roars to the castle. As if that was the key to enter the mystical building the doors slide open showing them a long corridor leading to an open space with stairs leading further in. It was Hunk who spoke first by saying hello, the others looked back at him as he spoke. To their surprise, a light shone above them, and a computer-like voice spoke to them telling them to hold for an identity scan. Keith and Shirogane immediately got into defensive positions in front of the cadets waiting to see if anything was going to come out and attack them. They watched as the lights around them began to slowly illuminate, the group followed the lights as they turned on, leading them to an empty space with a control panel. When Pidge got closer to it, two pods erected from underneath them, and the closest one to Lance opened up revealing a girl who opened her eyes and gasped out for her father. Lance quickly made his way to her seeing as she was about to fall from what he assumed was a long sleep. The dark-skinned alien looked up to see Lance, and he wasn't going to lie, she was pretty, like really pretty. Her blue eyes and pink scales below them stood out on her skin tone, her white hair did as well, and if Rachel could see her, the first thing she would ask was how her skin was blemish-free. Lance greeted the girl in his arms and gave her a smug smile.

"Who are you? Where am I?" he did not expect to hear a posh British accent coming from the girl, but from the way she dressed and the circlet on her head, he assumed she was important. Oh, he was definitely going to flirt with her.

"I'm Lance," he began. "And you are right here in my arms."

He had expected her to blush or to thank him; instead, what he got was a critique against his ears. He always knew his ears were a bit bigger than most, as did the rest of his family, but he did not appreciate others pointing it out. Who tells someone that their ears look hideous on their first meeting anyways? No one except the girl in his arms apparently. He defended his ears, and at that moment the girl pulled on his left ear turning him to face his companions and on his knees, she had grabbed a hold of his right arm twisting it behind his back as she began asking him who he was, the location of a king and how they got in her castle. The Cuban replied to her with tears in the corner of his eyes about the Blue Lion bringing them here and not knowing anything more than that. The princess, he guessed, she did say this was her castle, let go of him and spoke to the others asking how they got their hands on the Blue Lion and the location of a Paladin, whatever that was. She had let out a gasp and made her way toward the control panel. At that instant, the second pod had opened to reveal an older alien male with ginger hair and the same scales underneath his eyes, but in blue. The man opened his eyes to see that Lance was next to him, in a state of shock the man jumped at Lance, only for the teenager to move out of the way. The man began to tell him of all the ways he could have dealt with Lance if not for his case of "chamber knees, "seeing as the alien male wasn't all that bad, Lance entertained him.

"It can't be," the gasp Princess Allura gave out halted whatever dance fight Lance was having with the ginger-haired man. "We've been asleep for 10,000 years."

The Princess called the man next to Lance, Coran telling him that their civilization was gone and all because of Zarkon. In his peripheral vision, Lance saw his senior officer express a face of recognition to the name. When he said the name, it wasn't a question, more of a statement, it was almost as if he was trying to remember whose face belonged to the name.

"He was the King of the Galra." She said this with a distasteful tone. "A vile creature and enemy to all free people."

What the fighter pilot before them said about being held prisoner by Zarkon surprised the two Alteans, shocked that the "vile creature" was still alive. He kept going, explaining that Zarkon was looking for Voltron and how they came across the Blue Lion by coincidence, was it really a coincidence though?

"He's searching for it because he knows it's the only thing that can defeat him, and that is exactly why we must find it before he does." The way she said "we" almost seemed as if she was expecting them to accompany her on her journey to find the rest of the Lions Lance had seen in his vision back on Earth. He was still reeling in from shock on how somebody could be asleep for 10,000 years and not wake up for anything that could be going on outside them. He was sure Rachel, who was aiming to be a nurse had a tone of questions in concern on how they received nutrients and were able to stay alive in a coma for 10,000 years. Lance watched in silence as the last Alteans comforted each other, he felt that this scene was only for those two and shouldn't be interfered with so he said nothing during this time, he noticed that no one else of his team seemed to say anything either. Princess Allura was the first to break their hug when she heard a squeaking sound coming from the sleeping chamber, she was in only moments ago. She made her way only to see four mice looking up at her, and not just any mice, Altean mice. Her sense of happiness was cut short when a warning sound came from the control panel in the middle of the room, the screen showed them a battleship like the one they got away from back in the Milky Way Galaxy, now they were finally able to put an alien species to the ship's design, Galran.

"A Galran battleship has set its tracker towards us," exclaimed Coran.

"How did they find us so quickly?" The princess had asked in no one in particular.

Lance spoke up, "I double-checked when we made our way through the wormhole that no one followed us. It can't possibly be the same battleship we got away from in our galaxy, I was able to damage it using the Blue Lion enough that I'm pretty sure ended up giving it extensive damage."

"Are you sure you even aimed correctly? For all we know, you could have aimed at insignificant spots on the ship," Keith murmured.

"You try navigating a ship whose handling and maneuvering ability you aren't used to for the first time while trying to get away from a Galran ship sending lasers your way. When you do that, then come talk to me," Lance snapped.

Keith looked over to him, and before he could say anything more, their senior officer walked their way physically separating the two from each other, "Stow it, cadets! This is no time to place blame. It's time to work as a team."

He turned back and question the two Alteans on how long they estimated they had before the Galran ship made its way toward them. Lance could tell that Coran was unsure when he said they could arrive in a couple of days, it wasn't that he didn't trust the older man, but they should have been given precise information at this point. The princess, on the other hand, was confident in her advisor's estimation and proclaimed that by the time they would arrive the team of five humans would be able to reform Voltron ready to defeat Zarkon's empire. And empire that has been expanding for over 10,000 years. Yeah, Lance, wasn't really too sure about that whole idea. He knew was a daily daydreamer and was sometimes caught with his head in the clouds but even he knew when to think rationally.

All Lance wanted to know was how they were supposed to find the rest of the four Lions, and as if sensing his thoughts, Shirogane was the one to ask this question to the Princess. She had them follow her and Coran to what they called the Bridge of the castle. Once there, Coran explained to them that Allura was connected to the Lions through her life-force, curtesy of King Alfor. They watched in awe as a giant crystal above Allura glowed down upon her, the light shown outwards and showed them a constellation map that filled every inch of the room they were in. Pidge was the first to speak out in awe as she saw that the Blue and Black Lion were both in the same location, the Castle of Lions. Coran gave the youngest, what Lance assumed to be a compliment, and Allura nodded at him, as if proud. The royal advisor explained to them that Alfor was the one who locked away the Black Lion to keep it away from Zarkon's reach and in doing so, had the other Lions scattered amongst the galaxies, only when all four Lions gathered together would the Black Lion be freed.

"As you have found, the Lions choose their pilots, it is a mystical bond that cannot be forced. The quintessence of the pilot is mirrored in his Lion, together they form something greater than science can explain." Once Allura said that Lance couldn't help but question why the Black Lion was locked up if it chooses its own pilot, there was this nagging feeling deep in Lance's chest, but he thought nothing more of it as the Princess was beginning to explain the attributes of each Lion beginning with the Black Lion./

"The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron; it will take a pilot who is a born leader and in control at all times. Someone whose team will follow without hesitation," she had begun moving the holographic lion closer towards Shirogane as she spoke. "That is why Officer Shirogane, you will pilot the Black Lion.

"The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality and needs a pilot of intellect and daring. Pidge you will pilot the Green Lion. The Blue Lion is the friendliest of the Lions and is the most accepting of others and needs a pilot who has the potential to be more than just a friend but someone others can rely on and someone who can rely on others. That is why the Blue Lion chose you, Lance." The Cuban watched in awe as Princess Allura moved the holographic version of the Blue Lion towards him.

"The Yellow Lion is caring and kind. Its pilot is one who puts the needs of others above his own, his heart must be mighty, as the leg of Voltron, Hunk, you will be able to lift the team up and hold them together. The Red Lion is temperamental and the most difficult to master, it's faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable. Its pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instincts than skills alone, Keith you will fly the Red Lion. However, I cannot locate the Red Lion's coordinates yet, there must be something wrong with Castle, after 10,000 years it might need a bit of repairing, don't worry though, we will find it soon." Lance glanced at each of his team members, all with varying expressions written on their faces. Senior Officer Shirogane looked at the Black Lion before him with a determined look in his eyes. Pidge gave off an interested expression, probably more curious as to what made the Lions each different. Hunk glanced at the holographic Yellow Lion with uncertainty and nervousness. Keith glanced at the Red Lion and gave it a smirk.

"We don't have much time, we need to focus on retrieving the two Lions whose whereabouts we do know about. Pidge and I will go after the Green Lion, Lance, I want you to take Hunk and go the Yellow Lion. Keith, I want you to stay here if you locate the Red Lion, go get it,"

"Yes sir, Senior Officer Shirogane, sir!" Lance said as he gave him a salute, one that he had grown accustomed to giving to all officers who outranked him. However, he wasn't the only one who said this, Pidge and Hunk followed suit. This seemed to catch the officer off guard and gave them a smile.

"You don't need to call me Senior Officer Shirogane out here, and no saluting if you can. Just call me Shiro, it's easier."

He nodded his head to Pidge, as he followed Coran, and soon the three cadets followed the two toward the hangers.

On getting ready, the two groups made their way out of the planet's atmosphere getting into position as Princess Allura would apparently open two separate wormholes leading them to the exact coordinates of the Green and Yellow Lions. As they got into position, Lance was too busy calming his best friend down and trying to hype him up by telling him to be more confident in himself, that he almost missed Coran telling them that if they got stuck on the planets after the wormhole closes in two hours, they could at least live out the rest of their lives in peace. Lance and Hunk shared a shocked look before yelling out to Coran about what he had just told them. On the other side of their communication, the Cuban also heard Shiro and Pidge expressing their concerns. Is this how Alteans expressed comfort? If it was, Lance wanted none of that.

Going through the wormhole, the two friends found themselves in front of a planet that resembled the red color of Mars, and as they entered its atmosphere the radar on Lance's left began to pick up signals. Not just any signals, Galra signals.

Great, they had the planet filled with Galra, just fan-freaking-tastic.

Lance was able to warn Hunk to hang on tight before beginning evasive maneuvers to evade the two Galran pods after them. Lance would like to say, that while he wasn't the worst pilot in the world, he wasn't the best either, and that was felt when one of the rockets they were trying to evade hit the left side of the Blue Lion and knocking it down from its trajectory path and into the canyons below them. Before they crashed into the ground below, the Blue Paladin quickly pulled the handles toward him in an effort to pull the Blue Lion back into the air. For a brief second, the Blue Lion hovered above the ground before picking up speed again as the Galran pods began to shoot lasers at them. In front of them, more Galras began to shoot at them from a crater below. Blue began feeding him ideas that they weren't Galran per se, but sentries, robots created by the Galrans. That eased his mind when he had Blue shoot at them with its—her—laser. Lance could see mining equipment in and out of the crater, he was about to ask Hunk if the planet could possibly be a mining planet for the Galra when he heard his friend tell him they were right above where the Yellow Lion should be.

His day just kept getting better.

Hunk began to ramble questions on end, and Lance, being the patient friend he is with his friend finally snapped from the stress that he had built up from the first battleship he had fought off _alone_ , the news of a second battleship coming to get them, and lastly having to fight off a whole lot more of the Galra _alone_. So yes, Lance snapped at his friend, and he felt bad for it, he really did. He gave his childhood two warning counts that he would drop him off at the entrance where the Galra were mining for ore. He honestly didn't feel bad about ejecting his friend from the Lion as he turned back to face the Galra on his six. Lance muttered a sorry buddy before continuing on. He glanced over at the timer he had programmed for 2 hours, they had an hour, and 30 minutes left until the wormhole would close on them, he just needed to buy his friend time. He stayed in front of the cave entrance until he finally saw Hunk making his way down into the abyss, before luring the Galra above and away from any harm that could befall him. Blue's radar picked another Galran pod joining the two that had been on him since he arrived at the planet, he glanced outside as he saw the three making their way toward him laser canons already aimed at him. Blue sent him an image of bullet-like lasers being shot from its—her—tail so he followed her instructions and inputted the new keys into the holographic panel in front of him. He watched as the lasers hit dead center on two of the pods, but when those two were out of commission, three more took their place. An hour and 5 minutes, Lance speed up into the air doing somersaults over the pods before diving back down and having Blue sink her metallic teeth into the Galran spacecraft. Lance knew he got careless when three of the spacecrafts had continued to make their way toward the mining entrance firing laser beams and rockets its way. Lance panicked and had Blue fire at a pod that was in sight, but he was too late, the craft was able to send a rocket right above the entrance, having it collapse in on itself.

One hour.

Lance glanced at the timer before he continued to focus on the Galra sentries before him as they continued following him and Blue. There was only so much speed and energy that the Lion had, and Lance knew that he wouldn't be able to take them all. The Cuban boy kept murmuring underneath his breath for Hunk to be alright, this boy was his friend, his rock, his home away from home. If something happened to him, Lance would never be able to forgive himself. He could practically feel Blue warning him, that there was only so much damage she could take before she wouldn't be able to move. As more and more sentries appeared before him, their attacks got bolder and they held nothing back. The Paladin jolted in his seat as he felt a direct hit on Blue, he turned Blue around getting ready to fire at the sentry piloted pods, when he Blue got hit underside and then on her back. The two began a fast descent to the ground, and this time, Lance was unable to pull her back up. Lance counted Blue rolling on the ground seven-times before coming to a full stop. The seventeen-year-old got hold of his bearing quickly to hear the warning bell come from Blue and see as the three pods made their way towards him. Yeah, Lance was having a bad day. He braced himself as two rockets were fired at him, only for the Yellow Lion to come up from the ground in all its armored glory take the hit for him. He watched as Hunk piloted the Lion to jump on the pods that were still firing at them and crushed them in one fell swoop.

"Hunk you big beautiful creature, you just took that hit like a champ!"

"Actually, I was trying to get out of the way. Thankfully, what the Lion lacks in speed, it more than makes up for in armor."

"Hunk just take the compliment and roll with it, come on we need to get out here we have twenty minutes before the wormhole closes in on us."

As he said this, more sentry pods had come out of the woodwork and had made their way towards the duo, as Lance began evading more possible damage being done on Blue, Allura hailed in on his screen warning them about the wormhole closing any minute. Luckily, he and Hunk were able to go through the wormhole just in time before it closed. The two stayed up in space for a bit to gather their composure before heading back to the castle. Entering the Lion hanger, the got out of their respected to Lions to see that the Green Lion was already there. Meaning that Pidge and Shiro had arrived before them, Lance was willing to bet a year's worth of his mamá's Ropa Vieja that they didn't have to fight off Galra in the planet they went to. He was confident he would win the bet as there was no trace of battle on the Green Lion. He gave Hunk a side hug, whispering to him to not make him worry ever again, and apologizing for snapping at him earlier, and for ejecting him from Blue. The Samoan took Lance's worry and apologies to heart and returned his hug before the two headed off to the bridge. There they found the rest of the team waiting for them.

"I will never, ever, return to that nightmare of a planet ever again in my life. Why was it that fighting off the Galra battleship seemed easier to fend off than a bunch of sentries and sentry pods!" Exclaimed Lance as he rubbed his shoulder, trying to get it crack. Lance glanced on time to see Pidge throw a smile at Shiro's direction when they said they had a hard time too at obtaining the Green Lion, little liar.

He listened to what Coran explained to them what good and bad news they had been able to gather while the two teams had been opposite sides of the galaxy. Lance was anything been impressed on the so-called news that was being presented to them. Lance sighed as the screen in front of them began to receive a hailing transmission from the Galran ship. He watched as the Galra introduced himself as Commander Sendak, and he looked like he had seen better days if the mechanical eye that replaced a normal eye was anything to go by. To Lance the Galra looked no more than an overgrown cat that was able to stand on its hind legs, was it rude to think that? Maybe. But he couldn't quite keep the but thinking of the Grumpy Cat meme that had trended back in the 21st century, but with the mechanical eye, and purple fur. The newly named Paladin watched as his friend expressed his concern about having to face the Galra ship, way too early without any proper training and only four—technically three, thank you Pidge—working Lions.

Yeah, it was way to tense, and besides the Princess gave him the perfect opening, so no, he did not regret opening his mouth, "Girl you've already activated my par-," only to be stopped by Shiro before he could finish his sentence, party pooper.

Hunk looked over to Shiro, asking him if they could finally panic.

"No. We've just got to figure out our plan of action and figure it out quickly."

Lance was the first to state his opinion on the matter, he wasn't even surprised when Hunk seconded his opinion, "I say we pop though a wormhole and live to fight another day."

"We can't just abandon Arus!" cried out Pidge. "The Galra will keep destroying planets and capturing prisoners until we stop them."

"Okay, but if we run, maybe Sendak will follow us and leave this planet alone, like when we left Earth," countered Hunk.

Lance looked in surprise as Keith spoke next in favor of Pidge, "Sendak could destroy the planet then come after us anyway. Staying is our only option."

He felt a frown growing on his face when he heard Keith, man Lance just knew they weren't going to get along at all. "You aren't the one flying a Lion though _mullet_. We still have zero understanding of how long the Lions can run from the energy source they are recharging themselves with, nor if they are even recharging correctly after 10,000 years of no use. Blue has already taken enough damage from the first Galra battleship and the Galra infested mining planet Hunk and I came back from. How about you put yourself in the shoes of somebody who had to learn on the spot how to maneuver a giant sentient Lion while trying to avoid enemy fire. So, all in all, shut your quiznak."

The expelled cadet gave the Cuban a frown before replying back, "I don't think you're using that word correctly."

"What do you know Mullet?" he questioned, as he leaned forward.

"We're staying."

"Leaving!"

"Stop!" The four cadets turned away from each other, as Shiro spoke with the Princess trying to get her input on the situation. Unsure of the best course of action, Coran took Allura out of the bridge and to a different room where she could apparently speak with her father. Alien tech is weird. As the Princess and her advisor left, Shiro turned to the four cadets, a lecture already in place, Lance could just feel it. So, he sat at the foot of where Allura once stood waiting for the lecture to begin. Shiro spoke told them while their opinions are valued, they should always take into account the opinions of others, if not, this team would never work out the way it should. But could Shiro really blame them? Out of the three other cadets in this room, Lance knew Hunk the most, he was only briefly introduced to Keith when he became the star of the fighter pilot course and had recently met Pidge when he became Lance's communicator when he was moved up to the fighter pilot course after Keith's disciplinary issue. Lance knew how to consider opinions, especially in his household with four older siblings and parents who held strong opinions on Lance signing up for the Galaxy Garrison the first time he told them. The way they all looked at him as if he would be hunted out in space, or be taken away from them. At 14 years old, it confused him as to why his family seemed so adamant in not wanting to see Lance at the Garrison. It was Veronica who promised their parents that she would make sure to check up on Lance every moment she got, as the two being a part of the military would be able to keep closer contact hours with each other. The next summer he was finally able to sign up for the military branch of his dream, and he was glad he had Veronica to help him through all that.

The reminiscing boy was awoken from his memories when Princess had come back to the bridge in what appeared to be armor. She gave them an inspirational speech and had them follow her to the armory to get into their suits of armor. Each suit resembled one another except in the aspect of colors. Princess Allura later passed out their respected bayards, explaining how each took a distinct shape in weapon for the five of them. The bayard Lance received turned into a blaster that seemed to fit comfortably in his hand, for its bulky size it was well balanced and give him a good grip on the underside and the handle of the blaster. Marksmanship was always something he felt proud of, he used to go to the nearby archery range with his father and siblings during vacations, and not one of them was able to do better than Lance. When he learned how to handle blasters at the Garrison, many of his instructors were surprised that he would take out the highest score of previous students and set new higher bars.

They all returned back to the bridge to create a strategy against going Commander Sendak and to retrieve the Red Lion. Lance still wasn't sure on the whole idea of having him and Hunk be distractions for the Galra warship, especially with the warning of getting out of the ion canon's way in time. Yet, here they are, in front of a Galra ship bigger than the Castle of Lions. Great. The Cuban took the initiative and opened a hailing frequency to the Galra ship, hoping that it would go through while Pidge took the Green Lion, Shiro, and Keith to the side of the ship's hull. The first face he saw when the hailing call got through was that of Commander Sendak, actually, he was able to see the whole upper torso of the alien. Red-Orange armor clashed, terribly, with his purple pigmentation, and the prosthetic that replaced his left arm seemed too big. The Paladin wondered if he could even move that thing.

"Attention, Galra ship. Do not fire. We're surrendering our Lions," the two waited outside for 20 tense seconds, halfway through, Lance remembered asking for Pidge's ETA and receiving a response when the doors to the hull slid open. A gleam of purple light was what had him tell Hunk that it was time to away from the Galra ship and begin to damage the ion canon. On Blue's radar 22 Galran fighter pods were shown advancing on their location, Lance quickly told Hunk to focus on the ion cannon while he focused on the enemy pods. Hopefully, Blue was well charged by now so she could take a few hits. The Paladin and his Lion sped off, warding off as many of the fighters off Hunk and making sure to diverge as many of the laser beams as he could from his fellow Paladin. As he kept diverging enemy fire his way, from his peripheral vision he saw as Hunk throw his Lion toward the canon only to be bounced off by a particle barrier and sent tumbling a few good meters away.

"Hunk, you okay there buddy?"

"Yeah," he replied, "but that is definitely a force field surrounding this thing."

Worried about their situation out here, Lance called on his team members inside the ship, "Guys, we have a bit of a problem," he heard Shiro's voice before continuing. "The canon has some sort of force field around it, Hunk can't through it. Also, there are too many fighters joining the fight now and we are about to take heavy damage here. So, if you could hurry it up, that would be great. Thanks."

As he said this, he saw a small red bleep on Blue's radar, thinking it was another enemy, he whipped his head in the direction, only to see that it was Keith being thrown into space. He was about to make his way toward the guy, when he heard a roar, different than Blue's, and saw the Red Lion opening its mouth to get Keith inside. He watched as the Red Lion quickly jumped into battle and Hunk was finally able to break the particle barrier around the canon. Finally, something, went their way. The four Lions quickly hurried back to the Castle of Lions to retrieve the Black Lion.

They reached the Lions' den and saw for the first time the Black Lion in all its glory. It was magnificent, he thought the Yellow Lion was big, Lance now saw that it didn't stand a chance at the size of the Black Lion. Lance had thought with the canon damaged slightly they would be able to take a breather, only for Allura to tell them that the battleship was still making its way toward them. She called them to form Voltron, but Lance's main question was how? The only answer he got from Blue was the five Lions coming together to create the awesome robot, as they exited the castle from the Black Lions hanger. That didn't help, not one bit.

As they dodged enemy fire coming from fighters, they gave out a bunch of ideas, before Shiro recommended them flying in formation and hopefully be able to combine. For a few seconds, they felt nothing, only to be met with strange energy pulling them in. It was Shiro who told them that it was the Galran battleship that was sucking them in.

"We can do this. We have to believe in ourselves," began Shiro in a determined tone. "We can't give up. We are the universe's only hope. Everyone is relying on us, we can't fail, we won't fail! If we work together, we'll win together!"

Lance had to hand it to Shiro, he knew exactly how to motivate those around him, he now saw what Allura saw in him and made the connection to the Black Lion. There was this moment of shared determination between the other four Paladins when a sense of calm seemed to feel the air around them. Energy began to form around them, bringing them together as one, Lance didn't know how to describe what he was feeling until he saw on his holographic screen what appeared to be Voltron. There he saw that he and Hunk formed the legs of Voltron, Keith and Pidge formed the arms, and Shiro formed the head. It was almost mystical. Everyone let out a gasp in awe, questions began to flood the comms of trying to figure out how they even formed the robot they were in. Lance couldn't help but remember the old Power Ranger TV shows that would sometimes re-air on TV and how they would form a giant robot with mechanical beasts of their own. But this was real, no CGI took part in what they found themselves in, the Blue Paladin couldn't be any more excited. This whole experience was surreal.

Shiro got the team back on track as he maneuvered Voltron to turn toward the canon, where Pidge and Keith quickly grabbed hold of it with their Lions. Lance could feel his arms beginning to move the handles of the Blue Lion on their own, almost as if there was a connection between him and what Shiro wanted them to do. In one fell swoop, they were able to rip off the canon right off the ship and throw it into the air where it crashed into old ruins. He could feel Blue being pulled back alongside Keith before going into a kneeling position so Keith could blast a laser beam right through the hull of the ship. Voltron leaped back into action with it kicking a hole open on the top of the ship with the Yellow Lion only for the Green Lion to set off a beam of its own on the inside, destroying what was inside. The next to go were the hangers, getting rid of possible reinforcements form sentries and fighters was something that they wanted to avoid, followed by attacking the back thrusters of the ship. They watched as the ship began to explode from all points, they were able to hit with Voltron, Lance could hear everyone else, including himself, let out a yell in triumph for their first victory with Voltron. When they saw that what was left of the ship descend to the ground, they felt Voltron disengage, the Lions finally separating and the energy that bonded them as one, disappear. Shiro ordered them to all get back their Lions back to the entrance of the castle. As they each exited their respected Lions, Coran and the Princess were seen running outside to meet them, each with proud expressions directed toward them.

"Good work, Paladins!" Allura was the first to say. Lance thanked her as they all caught their breath for what felt like the first time in ages.

"We did it." Said their leader.

"Heck yeah, we did," smiled Keith as he got his helmet off.

"We may have won this battle, but the war has only just begun. Now that Zarkon knows Voltron has been reformed he will stop at nothing to it within his grasp and do everything he can to stop us from freeing the known universe from him." Allura told them bluntly.

Coran was the one who spoke next, "You only had to fight one ship, wait until you have to fight a whole fleet of them! It's not going to be easy being the Defenders of the Universe."

The paladins all looked him, eyes blinking at what he had just called them, "Defenders of the Universe, huh? That's got a nice ring to it."

Lance agreed with Shiro when he heard their new nickname, maybe Lance can get used to space.

.

.

.

But as said before, Lance was always one with his head in the clouds, and the newly formed team couldn't imagine the trials and tribulations that they would find themselves in. And family secrets that would be uncovered that will shake the foundation of a certain Paladin, but that is for later on in the story, this is now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *In this, Veronica, is originally a part of the Navy.
> 
> ** Junior Officer Warfeld is Adam.
> 
> ***Do you guys notice that in episode 1? I love small details like this.
> 
> Getting to Arus took 6 whole pages, 6! I think this is going to be a very, very detailed oriented fanfic. Yeah, this was episode 1 of Voltron. Wow. Keep in mind that episode is an hour-long, this took me about 5 to 6 hours to write. I think it was worth it. Hopefully, you all enjoy.
> 
> Lance is going to be very observant to the needs of those around him as you all can probably tell.
> 
> \---  
> Anyways, what did you all think?
> 
> This will mostly follow Lance, but I could add different POVs if you all want either in the story or as mini side stories for this series. (Yes, this will be a series. I think 1 to 2 chapters per episode if it all works out. I have everything planned out, beginning to end. If you guys want me to make changes then I will take them into account but keep in mind that I will not be able to fit everything in. The endgame for the main relationship will be Klance, but it is not immediate, I am more focused solely on the story and plot itself before getting to that point in the series. Plus, I don't think the ship will be heavy but more of a romantic form of fluff if that makes any sense. So, if you aren't a big Klance shipper, I think you will be fine, but if not you are welcome to not continue reading this series. The series will follow the eight seasons of Voltron, but I will be combing season 3 and 4 into one season, so 7 "books" in total, but don't quote me on this, I may combine 5 and 6 as well.) This au of mind has been telling me to write it since VLD ended, I love the show, but the way some parts were glossed over, didn't sit right with me.  
> \---  
> You're probably like, what about your other stories xHalfPrincex?
> 
> I need to pick off where I left off on Attack on Titan (manga) for me to create a good storyline for the fanfic (I am going to retitle this story I don't really like the prototype title).
> 
> For Blue Exorcist, I am having trouble writing chapter 12, chapter 13 is kind of done, but I have to post it after 12 if not I will have this nagging feeling at the back of my head. I am thinking 14 or 15 chapters for that story total, this is considered "season 1," and then I will continue it in "season 2".


	2. Chapter 2

Lance cannot get used to space.

It wasn’t because of the events that had transpired in the last two days, no, no, it was because he couldn’t sleep in the room he was given alone. All his life he shared a room with a family member, whether they were his older brothers, sharing a room with his twin sister, or when he crashed his sisters’ slumber parties, there was always room for him to sleep with any one of them. He remembered his parents telling him a story of how as an infant he never liked to take naps during the day unless someone was there lying next to him, they had thought that it would pass, but it got worse. When he saw that he would be able to share a room with Hunk at the Garrison, he was ecstatic at the thought, the two had grown used to sleeping together during sleepovers and when they would share a tent together during camping trips. However, seeing as there was only one twin-sized bed per room sent a frown to his brows. He had heard his friend ask if he was going to be able to sleep comfortable like this, and Lance could only nod his head. As much as he wanted to tell him no, he couldn’t, as it would result in him asking Hunk to share a room with him and having one of them sleep on the floor. He wasn’t keen on the idea of ruining his precious sleep, especially when he had already missed a whole evening back on Earth, and having his friend sleeping on the floor seemed cruel. After what seemed like hours, the Paladin got up and headed immediately to Pidge’s room, he had remembered that the boy had kept his backpack all throughout the trip to Arus, and he should have still had his headphones on him. Hopefully, Lance could ask him to let him borrow them for the night if he wasn’t going to use them.

Six minutes after negotiating with Pidge, who had still not gone to bed, he got the headphones, promising the younger boy to return them to his room in the morning. He rummaged through his jacket in search of his phone; sliding it open, he looked for his music app and searched for a certain sound file. It wasn’t a song, but a recording of his family singing together before he was off to the Garrison.

He remembered that day crystal clear, Nadia (age 2) and Sylvio (age 4) kept him busy by having him play around the house with them, his mamá was occupied in the kitchen cooking up his favorite food, pop-pop was going in and out of the house with his hands full of groceries. His older brother, Luis had to drive over to his wife’s work to pick her up and bring her back to the house party, and Marco was in the office finishing off a test for his summer classes. While Rachel, his twin, and his papa Leon drove to the airport to pick up Veronica, who would be taking Lance and Hunk to their first day at the Garrison the following day. This would be the first time in six months that his family would be whole ever since Veronica had to relocate to a Navy base in Georgia. When everyone had finally got home, the party was in full swing with dancing, singing, games, and the food his mamá had spent all day on was gone in a manner of what seemed like minutes, especially with the family of 12 in the same house. The new cadet silently got out his phone and recorded as he and his family sang to their favorite songs, and the last time his mamá would sing him a lullaby until he would see her again over vacation. Now, he didn’t know when he would be able to see her. If he would be able to hear her actual voice instead of a recording of it. Be able to hear of the stories about him and his older siblings growing up told by pop-pop with terrible imitation of their voices. Luis’s and Lisa’s wedding anniversary. Nadia and Sylvio’s next birthday. Marco graduating from University and Veronica getting promoted. He wouldn’t be able to see if Rachel was liking her senior year or see if she was being flooded with homework. He didn’t even know if he would see his grandparents by the time they got back to Earth. The thought of this scared him. It frightened him that his papa Leon’s cancer could relapse and take him away before they saw each other. It frightened him that his mamá Cuca wouldn’t be able to handle the stress of losing another family member after his uncle had disappeared 6 years ago. *

Lance knew these thoughts would get him nowhere, as he laid in bed trying to go to sleep; it was during these times he envied those who are able to sleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. He hated his inability to cope with being alone, or how to cope with being away from his family, but he knew that he wasn’t the only one. Pidge needed to find his family, who were apparently Sam and Matt Holt, Shiro wanted to get back to his fiancée, Hunk had a family to get back to, and Keith, will Lance wasn’t sure about him. However, he knew that they each had a family, and being involved in a war that no one asked to be a part of stopping them from doing just that.

These were the types of thoughts that always seemed to go through the teenager’s mind when he was alone. Once everything was quiet, once there wasn’t anything to be heard within his range of hearing, his mind would ponder over something terrifying when there was no sound to hide behind. He often wondered if others felt like this, do they go to bed thinking if they could have done something better during their day if they had made a different decision than the one that was already made. Would others often think of the future or the impact those decisions would have on others, did they think of the consequences that could affect them?

Lance would keep on asking questions like these all throughout the night before he was finally able to fall asleep. This is why he liked sleeping with other people, he would be able to talk to them and probably fall asleep in the process. He wouldn’t have these thoughts.

He didn’t _want_ these thoughts.

.

.

.

Lance wasn’t sure what time he had finally been able to sleep, but when he awoke the next morning, he felt like a pile of bricks were laying on top of him, pushing him down into the mattress not allowing him to get up or even move his arms. He laid in bed for a few minutes trying his best as humanly possible to move his hands to at least take off the headphones or remove the blanket. When he was finally able to take off the headphones he heard what appeared to be Coran’s voice over the comms, something about the Galra being in the castle, which he wouldn’t have doubted, if not for the horrible acting—he was sure Nadia could have done better, and she is only four. He took the horrible acting as his cue to finally push himself out of bed and to slip on the lion slippers Coran had given to each of them and a blue robe to cover himself with. He made his first stop be Pidge’s room, after all, he had promised to return the headphones back in the morning, he noticed that the room seemed to be in more disarray than yesterday evening, he would only assume that the boy did not sleep either or at least had trouble in doing so. Lance made a mental note to check up on Pidge when he had the chance and at least nudge the boy to sleep in early so he can wake up and begin his day going back to the techy stuff he had been doing. Maybe he can also slip in that he wouldn’t be able to help his family if was always tired, and yes, Lance knew that was a low blow, but the kid needed to sleep, Pidge was what, 15?

By the time he left the room, Coran was talking about Princess Allura missing her head, okay, now he was exaggerating the bit. All Lance could do was roll his eyes and chuckle a little at the antics of the Altean; he could only imagine what face the Princess was making. He really, really, wanted to see it, so he made his way, rather quickly, to the bridge in the hope to catch the last glimpse of her expression. On the way there, he made sure to place a smile on his face, create a demeanor filled with confidence, and stopped in the kitchen on his way to grab a cup of water, or what he assumed was water, to make it seem as if he had slept like a baby last night.**

Walking in, he yawned and gave them a good morning only to be met with the Princess telling him that she and Coran had been up all night to get the castle defenses armed and ready. This, apparently, included running drills, which they all failed, except for Shiro who already had his Paladin armor donned and looked ready for battle. He glanced at the other newly named paladins; each had their own tired expression written on their faces. The first he saw was Keith, who actually looked like he got some rest, he looked more tired the night they saved Shiro, and instead of looking exhausted from the whole ordeal of obtaining the Lions, the drop-out had the nerve to look rested? What? Pidge looked like he had been sleeping up against the wall, and knowing that there are prisoners who could possibly tell him where his family was, Lance wouldn’t have put it past him to have slept in the healing chamber waiting for one to wake up. The bags under his eyes made it looked like he aged within the past 24 hours, plus some, and with each of them running on little sleep he was surprised he didn’t notice any on Shiro. His role model looked as if he didn’t undergo being a Galran prisoner for over a year, except for the white tuff of hair from stress hanging over his forehead. While his facial features may not have risen any concerns, his eyes, on the other hand, looked as if they had been through hell. Veronica once told him that it would sometimes be impossible to pick out a soldier with PTSD just by seeing their facial features, it was the way they held themselves, composed but always ready for something to spring up at them. Shiro’s stance was straight as if speaking with a higher-ranking officer, his hands twitched every now and then, and his fingers were tapping his palms almost like a Morse code. Lance wasn’t sure if Shiro was doing that to remind him where he was or if it was subconsciously, he only hoped it helped the adult be at ease. Hunk, yeah, he never did great with lack of sleep, the poor guy was hunched over, it was hard to see that he was taller than his Cuban friend and everyone else in the room. Lance couldn’t help but be concerned with his friend as he spoke about his confusion of processing the information that has happened to them since Monday night. He never did well with stress either for all the six years they had known each other, there always ended up being too much waterworks, cooking, and constant questions. If his friend did gain enough sleep, Lance was sure that Hunk would have been able to see behind Lance’s façade, and right now he was glad the big guy didn’t, he had enough to worry about, and Lance didn’t want to concern him with his own problems.

When Hunk’s rambling came to an end it was Allura who focused their attention on a map of the known universe. Shapes, of different galaxies, took shape in the room, the majority of them turning red with distress beacons being produced by the planets inhabiting them. As Lance glanced around, he couldn’t help but notice how some of the shapes took the form of a triforce from the retro _Zelda_ games that were produced long ago. The Altean swiped the holographic image to where the Milky Way galaxy was, not that far off from other Galran claimed galaxies, it sent a shiver down the teenager’s spine to hear that a Galran attack could be inevitable for their planet. He grew even more concerned now that the Galra knew they were from Earth especially when the Blue Lion was found there. Lance could feel his fingernails digging into his left palm as he clenched his hand in his slouched stance. He quickly relaxed his hand in an effort to lessen the damage down to his palm before it got worse. He took a deep breath, hoping the others didn’t hear, as the princess explained to them the importance of getting the hang of Voltron, and quickly. And while Lance agreed with her, he was concerned about how he was supposed to bond with three other individuals he has barely worked with before. He only hoped that the training they would be doing was enough for the five of them.

When Shiro agreed with her, he nudged the rest of the paladins to meet up in their Lions to begin their training for Voltron, Pidge was the one who spoke.

“Wait! I want to talk to the prisoners we rescued from the Galra ship.”

As Lance thought, Pidge only had one thing in mind, and that was the information the prisoners could give him about his family. This made the Blue Paladin furrow his eyebrows in concern if the youngest could obtain the information that he needed what would he do with it? Would he urge the rest of them to help him find his family or would he ultimately make the decision to go out into the world and find them himself? If they were the only ones in the universe who could pilot the Lions, they wouldn’t be able to form Voltron, and without Voltron, there would be no defeating Zarkon and freeing the universe from his tyrannical reign. Lance watched as Pidge’s shoulders drooped as Coran explained to him that the prisoners were nowhere near waking up with their conditions. As the group began to disperse to respected chutes, he placed the cup he had been holding aside and placed a hand on the Green Paladin’s shoulder before telling him that he had dropped the headphones in his room and walking away. The younger male gave him a grateful smile before walking off to the chute that led to the Green Lion.

As he descended to Blue’s hanger, he was impressed by how the Altean technology helped him dress in his suit by morphing the black bodysuit to his body and the white and blue armor plates being attached to the suit, almost as if they were magnetitic. One of the mechanical hands made its way to take off his azabache, and he slapped a hand over it denying the mechanical hand to take it off of him. Ever since Lance could remember, he had never once taken it off, it was a present from his mamá Cuca on his twelfth birthday, telling him that the red bracelet and the medallion hanging off it would ward off all evil following him***, and while he didn’t truly believe in superstition, the red bracelet, only held together with string, and the jet black gem, meant the world to him, especially now since it was one of the few things that tied him back to Earth and his family.

Jumping onto the zipline was something new to Lance, all the while he was moved forward, he hoped his hands had gotten a good grip on the handles. Ahead of him, a small door began to open, Lance only assumed that was where he was supposed to go and did a leap of faith into the opening to be met with a blue hoverbike that took him forward to another opening with an elevator leading up to Blue. While he was moving fast, Lance wondered if all this was really necessary just to get to the Lion hangers.

He would make sure to ask Coran later on.

Each of the Paladins exited from the castle towers and ended up waiting for Hunk on the bridge that was falling apart outside the castle. Lance let out a worrying question to the rest of the team, wondering if Hunk could have possibly had trouble with piloting the Yellow Lion; it wouldn’t be until later that evening that he would find out what happened to Hunk and would end up laughing all throughout the night keeping Hunk’s secret all to himself for blackmail purposes, obviously.

Hunk joined not even two seconds later when he voiced his question and they began to follow Shiro’s lead on forming the giant robot. If the team needed to form Voltron under a tight time frame, they had to know exactly how long it would be until they could form Voltron seamlessly without much thought going into it. So, Shiro, the great leader that he is, asked Pidge to set a simple stopwatch for them so they could time themselves during the time it took to form the mechanical giant. It wasn’t until 20 excruciating seconds later—Lance counted—of flying in formation that the team moved onto the next idea to form Voltron, making a cheerleader pyramid. What the heck Keith? Lance felt embarrassed for the Lions having to go through with this, and he prayed to never have to go through it ever again. Ever again. He could feel Blue agree with him.

“Let’s take a break,” as soon as Shiro spoke that Allura intervened.

Once Lance heard her say “heat of battle” he should have kept his guard up, his gut was telling him this, _Blue_ was telling him this, but did he listen and pay attention to them? No. And he paid the price as soon as the castle’s particle barrier was set in place and the castle’s defense system was activated. Meaning an onslaught of lasers being fired their way, the Cuban was convinced that the princess had set it on auto engage and left them there, just like that. He was certain that he saw a glimpse of a smile and heard a cheerful tone coming from her visual. Yes, Lance was 100% doomed here in space, and it wasn’t because of the Galra empire, he was certain that Princess Allura would be the one to kill him before they even faced the Emperor. Lance would die at the age of 17, he could feel it in his gut during the moment he tried to make his way back to castle only to bounced off by the barrier. The team would continue trying to dodge laser after laser over the course of 30 minutes, sometimes, who was he kidding, always getting hit with one or three at the same time. If this exercise was supposed to help them, the only thing it did was help them with evasive maneuvers. Lance and Pidge were the first to notice that the barrier was flickering off and made an escape into the castle dodging the remaining laser beams directed to them followed by Hunk, Keith and lastly Shiro.

Let fear be his guide? Yeah right.

Flying into the hanger the teenager let out a much-needed breath before making his way outside of Blue, the poor girl looked even worse than yesterday, and Lance was starting to feel bad. He knew that piloting, as much as it was his passion, wasn’t his strong suit, but all he could do was be patient and keep practicing with Blue until they became comfortable with each other. Halfway into the exercise, Lance had noticed that she was easing off the instructions and letting him take over the next course of action only helping him when she thought he needed it, and he greatly appreciated the thought and effort Blue made in making him feel comfortable. He said a small goodbye to her and walked out of the hanger, making his way toward the lounge area where Pidge and Hunk had already made themselves feel at home. Lance followed suit and sprawled over the couch, he heard someone sit by his feet and lifted his head a little to see that it was Keith. Lance shrugged and was beginning to doze off when the doors behind him slid open and Allura and Coran’s voices begin to flood his ears.

Allura’s ecstatic voice of them finally forming Voltron almost made Lance feel bad for flying in the castle as soon as the barrier went down. Almost. He still didn’t agree with her method on how they should form Voltron. And he never wanted to do it again.

“No, we didn’t,” Lance glanced to see that it was Keith who spoke up for them. “The shooting stopped, and the particle barrier went down so we just flew in.”

The way the Red Paladin shrugged off the ordeal nonchalantly, Allura’s glare, and Coran’s “oh no” expression, made the whole scenario feel like the time his mamá and Marco had a small disagreement and his pop-pop knew about what Marco did and forgot to tell mamá about it. Then Shiro came and ruined it. Either way, Coran was now his hero.

“I’m not going back to Earth until I find my family.” Lance had to hand it to Pidge, once he set his mind on something, he was sure to accomplish it.

“There won’t be an Earth without finding a way to fight Zarkon,” responded Shiro to Hunk’s comment on wanting to return back to Earth. And while Lance agreed with both of them, he didn’t see a way how to either one.

“How are we even supposed to fight?” He questioned, sitting up to face Shiro. “We can’t even form Voltron without coming up with ideas that don’t make sense, Keith, and ideas that have us at the edge of our seats trying to maneuver ourselves into a good distance away to form Voltron.”

“Well, I’m not surprised.” began Coran. “The original Paladins fought hundreds of battles together, side-by-side. They were like a pack of yalmors linked at the ears.”

Lance gave the male Altean a look of confusion before he laid back onto the soft cushion, “Yeah, that’s definitely not us.”

“During the last attack, your survival instincts forced you to work as a team, but that will only get you so far,” he continued. “You’ll have to become a real team to have any chance of forming Voltron and then beating Zarkon next time.”

Lance didn’t even know he spoke until he felt everyone’s eyes on him, “And how, pray tell, are two childhood friends, a short genius, a Senior Officer, and a drop-out supposed to become un equipo anyways?”

“You could try working out on the training deck!” replied Coran. Lance could practically feel Hunk’s worry towards him before questioning the news of a training deck. 

Coran asked them to follow him as Allura continued on with running diagnostics on the castle. The walk to the training deck wasn’t really a quiet one due to Hunk whispering to Lance, asking him if he was feeling alright. The concern Hunk had over his friend was cute, and Lance appreciated it. The only person the Cuban had ever told about his inability to sleep alone outside his family was Hunk. He understood Lance’s need for this and didn’t question it when he found out; instead, he embraced it and followed along with it. He would help him sleep by talking with him, telling him about anything really, and it always helped put his friend’s thoughts at ease, enough for him to finally be able to sleep. Hunk then asked one final question, “Do you wanna talk before sleeping?”

Lance gladly agreed.

Entering into the training deck, Coran had them walk to the center of the room while he made his way through some side doors and into an observation deck. He quickly explained the first exercise in the form of protecting each team member’s safety and relying on them to protect their own safety. Once five drones were set free and the shields—that are way too narrow to protect them—were brought out from their suits, the exercise began. The first to go was Pidge when Hunk made the decision to crouch down to evade the attacking drones instead of using the shield to protect himself. Then went Hunk as he was fired from behind and fell into a chute that appeared below his feet. If Lance thought the castle firing at them in their Lions was bad, being fired upon by drones was worse especially when he wasn’t sure if the five of them could even work together. Seeing the Green and Yellow Paladins fail, the remaining three stepped backwards, standing back to back, protecting each other from the firing drones. Neither of the three Paladins spoke, too focused on what was in front of them to even utter a sound. The intensity of the speed the drones fired was increased each passing second, and before Lance could crouch to stop a short beam with his shield, it went in between his legs and hit Keith who had been crouched down. With no one behind him, Lance was the next to go falling in the chute and into a dimly lit room. He could hear the grunting of his fellow paladins and soon heard Shiro’s joining them.

Exercise 1, fail.

Exercise 2 was to get through an invisible maze that only a partner, up in the observation deck, could see. Lance, being the hopeful person he was, hoped that Hunk was his partner when he heard the possibility of getting shocked. Then he heard Keith’s voice, he was sure the Red Paladin volunteered himself for the role, and as soon as he hit a wall, Lance was 98% sure that Keith volunteered himself for the role. He already apologized to him for letting a drone hit him, he even apologized for many more times than he really wanted to. However, Keith wanted to get back at him. Fine then, this meant war.

Exercise 2, fail.****

Their third exercise would be held in the air, with the Lions of course. Lance was confident in his bond with Blue and gladly expressed it to the rest of the group. And he did feel confident up until the moment Coran darkened his field of vision in a nose-dive. He could feel Blue nudge him, pushing him to open his mind for her, Lance was beginning to when he felt that Keith was next to him, and Lance wasn’t the type of guy to not pay someone back for what they did, so he egged the other teenager on. Until the two found their Lions buried in the dunes, Red more so than Blue. Blue was not amused by their outcome.

Exercise 3, fail, except for Shiro. Go, Shiro!

Forming Voltron in their mind seemed easy enough for Lance so he placed the headband over his head following the Altean’s instructions on what to think about. It was almost like meditating, finding the happiest moment in their life, and making that their happy place, a place they can go back to if they need to regain themselves. With his eyes closed and an open mind, he could see what his other teammates were thinking of, Hunk’s passion for food and the family kitchen; Keith’s run-down shack in the desert; Pidge’s girlfriend; and he saw Shiro and Junior Officer Warfeld in the Garrison’s lounge area. It was here that Lance began to think of the times he and his family had spent their days in Cuba before needing to leave. The white grainy sand in between his toes, the way the water seemed to follow his every movement when they played in it, it felt peaceful, when suddenly it didn’t. He could feel someone—Pidge—pushing further into his mind, further into that memory trying to see more of it when he felt a pounding headache begin to start up. Then his memory began to flicker, snippets of an unfamiliar scene came to him as soon as the Green paladin left, occupied with Hunk entering his mind.

A dark empty room filled his field of vision as they stopped sharing their memories for a moment. He shook his head, as they began the mind bonding a second time, he thought of his family once again, then he let go, forming Blue in his mind thinking of their bonds and creating Voltron, the connection was finally there when the searing headache began again and Pidge broke the bond. While Pidge was busy complaining over the exercise, Lance looked down and quickly took off the headband and placed it to his side. He put his head in his hands and took deep breaths hoping for the headache to subside, only for a final image to be shoved in the front of his mind, and feeling as if his azabache was burning his skin.

A formless figure covered from head to toe in a dark cloak, the only thing visible were five glowing yellow slits coming from where its face should be.

Exercise 4, semi-success with a headache.

Lance looked up as Coran handed out a pouch of the weird water, but not water, to each Paladin. He pushed aside the weird image, thinking it was only the fatigue finally getting to him, the none stop exercises did not do much to help in his case. He gave the man a grateful smile and moved closer to Hunk, leaning against him in an effort to relax his back from having to sit upright for the whole meditation. The Cuban glanced around, seeing how the team of five seemed to have built their own mini teams, he and Hunk—and Pidge, he guessed—and Shiro and Keith. It was almost as if they were forming one single team with two different ones. 

Lance could finally feel his muscles begin to relax when it came Allura, asking why they were not training. The teenager understood her concern about finding a quick solution for them to form Voltron but with all these exercises and no time in between to rest, he wouldn’t be surprised if his body and mind to wake up sore tomorrow. So, when she told them of the gladiator, Lance wanted to just get up and make a run for it, he could already tell that this would most definitely be giving him bruises and sore muscles.

Exercise 5 was a total beat down.

The bayard he and Hunk were using turned into long-range and mid-range weapons respectively. Pidge’s strange grappling hook taser could be used to get out of quick situations instead of direct combat, especially when the kid had no idea how to use it correctly. Compared to Shiro and Keith who fought in sync together, the other three had no idea how to work together against the Altean technology or work as a team in the matter of fighting. That’s why it was to no surprise that the three cadets were the first to be out. The gladiator had landed closer to Hunk and made its way toward him. Hunk fired off his mini canon sending a few blasts toward Keith who quickly brought up his shield, but he was pushed back by the force emitted from them. The gladiator dodged every blast that Hunk sprayed around the room, swung his polearm sending Hunk to his back, and finishing him off with a taser at the end of the pole. In came Pidge trying to come up from behind seeing that the gladiator was busy with the Yellow Paladin, but it was almost as if it was waiting for him to approach. While the boy was able to block off a few of the hits, the taser at the end was what finally got him and sent him flying on top of Hunk. Seeing the two out of it, Lance quickly got hold of the gladiator’s attention by firing at it, he only hoped that Shiro and Keith would intervene before he would be forced to get into close-ranged fighting. However, this was wishful thinking as he saw the two just stand there, almost as if processing what had just happened to the other two Paladins, and Lance had to admit the gladiator wasn’t just strong, but fast. It had used its polearm to deflect the fire being sent his way to get closer to Lance and pushing him to the side, it was there that he heard footsteps coming up from behind, Keith on his right and Shiro on the left when his bayard was knocked away from him. As he watched as his weapon skidded across the room he was met with a hit to his head, and then another as it came back from fighting Keith until it tossed him into Keith’s un-waiting arms. This whole exercise was exactly what Lance thought it was going to be. Them being beaten down by Altean technology.

It felt great.

He grumbled as he pushed himself off of the Red Paladin in time to see that Shiro was making his way toward the gladiator his arm beginning to glow that strange purple again. The headache from earlier Lance had felt he was sure that it was beginning again, and he wasn’t sure if it was because of the two hits he received to the head or the energy emitting from Shiro’s arm. He clutched his head, wanting— _needing_ —for the pain to subside, and when it did, Shiro’s arm had turned off and the man looked to be frozen in place. It didn’t take long for Lance to think that Shiro was having a memory relapse. It was here that Lance was thankful for his sister to have told him what could occur to someone after experiencing a traumatic event, and how she urged him to read her mental health first aid book when she was done with it. He quickly made his way toward the Black Paladin once the gladiator was shut off, pushing away a concerned Keith urging him to be silent. Actually, he urged the whole room to be silent. Kneeling down next to him, he slowly made his way to help him up after asking him if it was okay for Lance to help him. The teenager took a deep breath as he reassured Shiro that while the pain he felt was real, he was not in danger. *****

“Shiro, listen to me,” he began, feeling all eyes on him. “Listen to my voice, whatever you are seeing, you aren’t there. The pain you are feeling is real Shiro, but it isn’t being done to you now. You can feel my hand on you, Shiro, you can feel the ground of the training deck underneath you, the weight of your Paladin armor on you. This was nothing that you had when you were with the Galra, you are on Arus, in the Castle of Lions. Open your eyes, Shiro, look at what is in front of you, look at who is in front of you. Take all the time that you need to cool down Shiro, we’ll be here waiting, right by your side.”

Lance wasn’t lying when he told Shiro that they would be waiting, he kneeled next to the man holding onto his shoulder and his other hand stopping the others from talking, and most importantly Allura to stop her from demanding more out of them. The look of concern that each person had was written all over, even Coran, who could only hear what was going on stayed silent from the other side of the comms. Within the ten minutes they stayed there waiting for Shiro to come back to them, Coran had made his way down to the group.

Seeing Shiro come back to them, the tension in the room seemed to lessen, if only a little, before the others could bombard the Senior Officer with questions, Lance stopped them and asked Shiro a short series of yes or no questions.

“Shiro, if you can’t talk, just nod or shake your head, ok?” Shiro nodded.

“Ok,” he began. “Do you know where you are?”

Shiro nodded.

“I want you to shake your head for Earth and nod for Arus.” Shiro nodded again.

“Good, you’re doing good Shiro. Do you think you are able to stand up?” This was the first one the Black Paladin shook his head, a no. “That’s okay, take all the time you need to feel comfortable.”

So, there they all sat, or stood in the Altean’s and Keith’s case, silently waiting for Shiro to take a deep breath and feel comfortable in his surroundings, this took another 10 minutes. Within those ten minutes, Lance thought of all possible situations that Shiro could find himself to relapse into a memory. If this kept happening, and no one else could help Shiro through this, Lance feared the worst for the adult. He needed help, professional help, not the novice level help Lance could provide after reading his sister’s first aid in mental health and researching for more information on the internet. Shiro needed to speak with someone, and he had to do it now or else everything that he feels in the future would overwhelm him. 

It was Coran who spoke first as Keith and Lance helped Shiro to his feet. Nudging them all toward the dining room telling them that it was time for all of them to take a much-needed break. Shiro thanked Lance on the way there telling him that he was glad the teenager was able to help him through his panic attack and for being patient with him throughout the long wait. Lance smiled and nodded at the pilot. Pidge was the one who asked him where he had learned how to deal with panic attacks.

“My big sister Veronica is a part of the Navy, she had to take a class for first aid in mental health and injuries since the unit she joined mostly partakes in the extraction of soldiers who are unable to escape through terrain or sky. Most of them ended up going through… _difficult_ events, so they have to have basic knowledge on how to handle their trauma and injuries until they can see a professional. She ended up telling me and my twin all about this after hearing I wanted to get in the Garrison and Rachel in nursing. She gave us her old books and I just did extra research on them.”

The boy looked up at Lance in awe, the expression he had written over his face reminded him of the way Sylvio would look at him when he would fire off his shots in the shooting range. He smiled back at him before telling him that he could teach him if he wanted to learn about it, to which Pidge agreed.

Exercise 5, fail.

.

.

.

Entering the dining room, the Blue Paladin could finally see why Coran had scurried off first, on the table, there were two big bowls of green goo two other bowls filled with, what looked like rectangular prism-shaped pink and green jelly. They all took a seat, with Keith and Lance walking Shiro to a chair closest to the head of the table. Followed by Hunk sitting next to him with Lance on his right followed by Keith and lastly Pidge at the foot of the table. They each served themselves a good portion of the food goo when Coran stopped them from eating by deciding that this was their last exercise of the day. Feeding each other. Like a pack of yalmors, whatever those were.

Lance could feel Hunk trying to simmer down, and Lance had to agree with his buddy, there was no way that nothing was going to stop him from eating. Except when Keith defiled his food goo. There they were, the five of them struggling to feed themselves while the Altean Princess sat there eating with Coran by her side, waiting on her.

Shiro, the tired man who had just gone through a _panic attack_ , gave out an exhausted sigh. And Lance had to hand to him, after an attack like that, he wondered how Shiro wasn’t physically or mentally exhausted and unstable from it. The guy just needed to rest, and he needed it now.

“Can’t you just give us a break?” Shiro asked. “Everyone’s been working really hard today.”

Then Keith followed with an exclamation of his own, “Yeah! We’re not some prisoners for you to toy with, like…like…”

“Like a bunch of toy prisoners!” Lance helped out. Keith thanked him, with some hesitation in his voice before he said his name.

“You do not yell at the Princess!” remarked Coran.

Then came Pidge with a sassy response of his own, “The Princess of what? We’re the only ones out here and she’s no princess of ours.”

Out of nowhere, a flying food goo met Pidge’s face, staining his glasses and slowly falling onto his paladin suit. Everyone looked to see that it was Allura who had thrown it using the spork in her hand to fling it straight into Pidge’s face. Lance didn’t know she had it in her to even do something like that, she was a princess after all, aren’t they supposed to be taught what they can and cannot do. He was pretty sure she broke a rule in dining etiquette.

“Go loose Pidge!” the chaos that ensued after Keith said this was one that Lance was sure his mamá would ground him and his siblings if they ever decided to do this at her dinner table. Keith threw his plate still filled with goo toward her when Coran used the towel, he had in his hand to deflect the trajectory followed by using a ladle to land goo on each paladin’s face. Hunk followed into the fight by stuffing his mouth with goo and bring his hand together to spray the two Alteans, in the process dragging Lance and Shiro close to him. He was able to hit them both, and the war soon resumed.

Lance wasn’t sure how long the whole food fight lasted with him using Hunk as a shield and using his spork to hit Coran and Allura straight in the face every time they popped up from behind the chairs. He could hear everyone laughing and screaming along with him, he quickly glanced over to see how Shiro faring to see that the adult had finally loosened up a little to enjoy the moment. Being the veteran that he was, he was able to use his skills to get a minimum amount of goo on him and was able to use the plates in front of him as shields and tools to collect the goo to aim back at the Alteans. This whole entire scenario felt like home to the teenager and Lance could feel his worries dissolving away. It almost felt like a team.

As they came to a halt, Allura slumped herself into the chair behind her letting out a sigh. All the paladins looked at one another, laughing at each of their appearances, food goo everywhere.

“Enough!” exclaimed Allura from her seat head bent down. Lance was worried that she would begin to tell them that they were acting like children and not taking their situation seriously, only to be met with looking up at them with a smile on her face. That’s when Lance knew that they finally did something right. The Cuban let out a smile and met Keith’s eyes, and for some strange reason, he felt at peace, as if they had finally bonded. Probably not as close as Allura was hoping for, but there was a bond of comradery for a moment that lingered between the two.

Coran handed each a towel to get the food goo out of their hair and clean off their suits before they went to see if they could finally form Voltron after a morning of non-stop exercises.

Going outside, meeting up in their Lions, Lance could feel the same energy coming off of them from when they first formed Voltron. The moment of calm determination between the five of them coming together to form one being. The bond between them growing stronger as their Lions came together and intensified the energy he had first felt when meeting Blue. Lance felt whole for the first time since they last formed Voltron.

Exercise 6, success.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *So, the names papa Leon and mamá Cuca are what I call my grandparents, yeah.
> 
> **Notice how I didn’t give him a facial mask from the beginning? I honestly don’t think the castle will even have these things over the course of 10,000 years, it’s honestly not really realistic to me. I kind of also want to get rid of the food goo, but they need sustenance, so I’ll keep it in, that and I don’t know if it has expiration dates for that kind of food. IDK.
> 
> ***I have worn a red bracelet like this for over 10 years (I’m 21 guys, so yeah, I can see Lance wearing this for over six years without taking it off, plus, we kinda need 2 hands to take it off). I have known others who have worn them since a younger age, and because they are made out of string the sizes can just be accommodated for the wearer. I love being born into a Mexican family, with superstition and everything. (Yes, I believe in superstitions, with limitations on a few). I think in Cuba they would call this an azabache, if you are Cuban, correct me on this because I am not.
> 
> ****For the maze exercise, I think Keith just looked at the map wrong. The map in front of Keith didn’t show the whole thing, and if you notice, Lance’s blue dot it doesn’t show where he is facing. I think Keith thought Lance was facing the semi-circle in the maze not one of the straight corners beside the dot, and that is why he told him to walk two steps forward and when he saw his mistake he just rolled with it just to mess with Lance. For this story, Keith just wanted to get back at Lance for not protecting him from the drone fire.
> 
> *****I took a Mental Health First Aid class for adults, so I have this book. It’s really helpful. Panic attacks can last from 10 minutes up to an hour, it’s different for everyone. I think I did Shiro’s panic attack okay, I have never seen one in person, but I feel comfortable enough with it that it seems realistic.
> 
> Can we talk about how the Alteans use sporks? I don’t think that gets enough attention in the series. I love it.
> 
> Spanish Translation(s):
> 
> Mamá = mom, mama, mami, mum, mother…
> 
> Un equipo = a team.


	3. Chapter 3

The team formed Voltron two more times after they finally connected to each other, the sense of relief that was passed between the five of them, and the two Alteans could probably be heard around the universe. Lance only hoped that over the course of 10,000 years, there was still faith in Voltron from others, if not, this would all be for nothing.

They had all decided that it was finally time to end their training for the evening and agreed to meet up in the lounge to relax a little before heading off to bed. Lance was the first to speak when everyone had gathered, the giddy feeling was still there for him after all the training, the feeling of accomplishment that he knew the others felt. It was surreal, and he wanted more of it.

"I'm still feeling charged up, I honestly don't think I will be able to sleep tonight!" His mind was rearing up, ready to begin again, wanting to jump from place to place, unsure when he should slow down and take a breather. He looked over to Keith as he responded to Lance's comment, claiming that he felt the opposite, all the never-ending training had tired him out. As he finished off his response with a smile, Hunk had slid his way in between the two and brought them in for a tight hug. A hug full of warmth, happiness, and sunshine. Lance loved every second of it.

When Hunk allowed the two of them to slip from his arms, Lance pulled at his azabache, taking comfort in it, as he had for Hunk. He felt his best friend glancing at him, sending a reminder of their promise to talk, Lance sent him a smile and nodded, getting up from the couch and walking off with Hunk toward their rooms. Exiting the lounge, they saw that Keith was in the hallway, probably waiting for Shiro, but before they continue on their way, Keith had stopped them, asking if he could speak to the Cuban for a moment. The Blue Paladin nodded, telling Hunk that he would meet up with him in Hunk's room, as he stood next to Keith. Before Keith could begin, Shiro had walked out of the room giving them a smile before saying goodnight and heading off. Lance glanced over at Keith, waiting for him to say something after Shiro had turned the corner. The silence between the two wasn't nerve-wracking, but awkward, Lance wasn't exactly sure how to speak with the Red Paladin since the two always ended up in some form of argument.

"Well," began Lance, trying not to sound too awkward. "What do you need?"

"I just wanted to say," Keith frowned, probably unsure of what to say, or how to say it. The Cuban stood there, his back hunched over, trying to hear Keith's mumblings.

"I just wanted to say thank you." Lance blinked. "Thanks for helping Shiro back there. Later."

Lance stood still, staring at where Keith once stood in front of him, unsure as to what happened. Keith thanked him. Keith Kogane thanked him. It felt, weird. Lance sucked in a bit of air through his teeth and walked down the hallway toward Hunk's room, after slipping into his room to change.

Lance knocked the door to Hunk's dorm, before letting himself in, the moment he walked in he saw that Hunk had already changed into the burnt orange pajamas he had on in the morning. The ray of sunshine looked over at his friend, sending him a welcoming smile and inviting him to sit on the floor with him, where he had already laid out a blanket and two pillows. The room looked exactly like Lance's except that everything was a mirror image of his own. The Cuban met Hunk's smile with one of his own, happy that after two hectic days he finally had some alone time with someone he considered as family. He made his way to where his friend was and plopped himself down on one of the pillows.

Sitting together, the two talked for what felt like hours, telling each other of their worries and fears. Hunk expressed his concern about leaving Earth without their family ever finding out what happened to them, or without a way to contact them. That left a sore spot with Lance, the two boys had each come from big families, all of them practically living under one roof. Hunk with his parents, his two aunts, and his uncle, not to mention his two cousins. Lance who had his paternal grandparents, parents, his four siblings, his sister-in-law, and Nadia, and Sylvio. Their family meant the world to both of them, finding a way to get back to them was something that the two not only wanted but needed. The two continued their talk, and Lance could feel himself nodding off, and sleep soon called for him.

.

.

.

Hunk's food was heavenly to Lance, and he would not be surprised if Hunk himself was God, if he is, Lance would worship him for the rest of his life, and he had a feeling Keith would too. The two Paladins scarfed down the meal presented to them by the Samoan after he declared to Coran that the food needed to be remade, but in a nicer form. Lance may not have known what Hunk used to create his food, but dear gosh, whatever the ingredients he used, he made them delicious. The Cuban heard the hiss of the door opening as Princess Allura walked into the dining room, he looked over to the Alteans who were discussing about a booster when the alarm began to blare and the lights around them turned a bright red. Keith and Lance quickly stopped eating and stood up from their seats next to each other, glancing over to the Alteans as Hunk let out a worried "huh."

Allura materialized a screen showing an outside area of the castle, a short figure can be seen ducking behind the rocks trying to be stealth-like and leaning its head from behind it. Behind him, Lance heard Keith question what the creature was, and the Cuban was almost tempted to give him a sarcastic reply, almost. Allura believed the creature to be a local Arusian as they watched it scurry to another rock, making its way closer to the castle. The small alien had horns resembling that of a ram, with pale-yellow skin leading to a short-striped tail, in his hands was a weapon that resembled a sword made out of stone. Lance found it very cute, as did Hunk, except for Keith who had already materialized his bayard in his right hand. The Blue Paladin sent a glare at the lone wolf, as Allura stated that Alteans believed in peace before anything else, and Lance nodded in agreement. The Princess set out to welcome the Arusian and Coran and the Paladins followed after her. Lance began to wonder if the Arusian would look good in a knitted sweater if he found the materials Lance wanted to try and knit him one. As they left the dining hall, Lance could hear the apprehension in Keith's voice as he ran after them, man does this guy have trust issues, thought the Blue Paladin.

Walking through the castle gates, Lance spotted the Arusian leap into a nearby bush, the teenager smiled at the alien, and pointed the bush out to the rest of the group. Allura walked in front of them toward the bush that the Arusian had decided to hide himself in, Lance caught a glimpse of him peeking through the leaves at them. The Princess bent her knees a little to coax the Arusian out from his hiding place. The Arusian jumped out from the bushes with his sword pointed at them, and while Lance was certain he should have pulled out his bayard, he felt no ill intent coming from the alien, unlike Keith who stood in front of the Princess, ordering the Arusian to drop his weapon. That apparently did not sit well with Klaizap, who had introduced himself in the third person, and raised his sword toward Keith, the little guy has guts. Keith immediately stood down as Allura commanded him to put away his bayard but with an annoyed grunt.

"Please kind sir," began the Altean, "accept my most humble apologies."

Klaizap let out a confused sound and placed his hands to his sides as he formally introduced himself as the bravest of the Arusian warriors, who had come to seek out answers to the recent attacks on Arus. He claimed that he would be able to gain these answers from a Lion Goddess. The group frowned a little in confusion as Klaizap motioned to a mural engraved in stone next to him. The image of a Goddess with the head of a Lion dressed in robes with Arusians kneeling before her was shown. Lance was confused as to how they could have missed the tall mural in front of them. And also interested in how the Arusians also had their own religion, his mind began to wonder if all aliens had their own of religion, or if it was only a few, he wanted to ask more about it, later on, to either Coran or Allura whenever they all had time. Apparently the Arusians believed they had angered their Goddess and that she had sent Voltron to punish them for their sins, if the alien had no idea what Voltron was, then the 10,000-year absence would really take a toll on gaining comrades in their fight against the Galran Empire.

Allura looked surprised at his interpretation of the recent events that have transpired over the past two days. Lance glanced over to her as she directed another smile toward the Arusian, telling him that he and his fellow Arusians have not angered the Lion Goddess, going further to state that the castle was hers, and introducing herself to him. The short alien let out a gasp and dropped to his knees giving the Princess a deep bow and claiming her as the Lion Goddess of the mural. Allura did her best to have him stop calling her that, but he would hear none of it, so she gave a resigned sigh and asked for Klaizap to take the five of them to the Arusian village. The warrior looked up to her and nodded profusely, the smile that he had given her reached his eyes and the way that he got up from his deep bow, almost as if he were jumping with joy. Lance let out a small chuckle, the excitement that the Arusian emitted was contagious, and Lance could feel it affecting him.

Allura invited the warrior inside the castle with them, leading him toward the hanger of the Yellow Lion while the three Paladins headed toward the dining hall to grab their helmets from the table—the kitchen in Hunk's case. There the three met with Shiro and Pidge, both of which looked physically shaken, the glare that Pidge sent the Senior Officer's way was murderous, and Lance was afraid for the older man. Shiro glanced at the three of them, asking where they were going, Keith was the one who answered, explaining that they would be making their way to the local Arusian village to thank them for their hospitality. The Senior Officer nodded and gave them a smile while he told them of their way to the Galran shipwreck in the hope to acquire information on Matt and Sam Holt. Before any more could be said, Pidge pushed Shiro and him toward the castle entrance, rushing him toward the direction of where the Galran ship had crashed. Lance watched as the two of them made their way there, a nagging feeling in his gut wanting to urge them to not go, but he thought nothing of it, and went on his way as well. He only hoped that Pidge got the answers he needs to find a way to locate his family.

Leaving the castle, Lance and Keith followed behind the Yellow Lion where Klaizap was leading the way to the Arusian village. Lance could not help but marble of the beauty of Arus, the expanse of greenery, the range of the mountains, and the body of waters that seemed to divide the mountains, Lance felt lucky to able to see this. Hopefully after all this was over and he would see his family again, he would be able to come back to Arus and sit back and relax. He kept a smile on his face throughout their journey to the Arusian village, seeing it over Gazrel Hill, he was amazed at how small and yet beautiful the village was. Most of the houses were made out of stone, roofs were dome-shaped, colored differently from their neighbors and seeing it from above, reminded him of the homes in the central cities of Cuba bustling with bright colors. As they brought the Lions to a halt on the outskirts of the village, Lance caught sight of many Arusians making their way to the center of the village awaiting to see what come out of the mechanical Lions. Klaizap was the first to make his way to the village, his sword strapped to his side, and short legs scurrying off. Leaving his helmet in his seat, Lance followed after the Alteans and Hunk with Keith taking up the rear of their group, heading toward the center of the village. On arriving at the Arusian village center, they came across with many eyes staring at them, many held uncertainty to the arrival of strangers, while others were in awe of guests visiting their village. Lance could not help but let out a small smile as the children were the ones who came closer to the group of five. Children are curious no matter the race, and the way they looked up to them—literally—just enhanced their feeling of curiosity. It was Coran who picked one up first, the child seemed to love being high up in the air, of course, she would, Arusians barely passed Lance's hips. The child would giggle and let out a burst of laughter full of energy, having fun just being held. The rest of the children soon followed, lining up for Coran to raise them in the air for their turn. Lance glanced over to Allura and Hunk as they seemed to have their own fun with other Arusians that came close to them. Keith on the other hand still looked as if he did not trust the welcome of the Arusians, he even brought his helmet, and held it close to him, glancing around the village seeming to look for danger. Seriously, this dude needed to chill, his whole aura was making two Arusians close to him look uncomfortable.

"Lion Goddess, Lion Warriors!" Lance looked over to where the voice was coming from to see that it was Klaizap leading two Arusians to them.

An Arusian donned with a green robe was the one who spoke to them first, introducing himself as the King of the Arusians, while the second Arusian donned in yellow only stood back in silence, staring at each of them before settling on Lance. The look that she sent him felt strange, almost as if she were looking above him, and not at him. Lance turned his attention back to the King, to catch him announce a Dance of Apology to be presented to the Allura—the Lion Goddess—as an atonement for their wrongdoing, as he clapped his hands, a female Arusian made her way from the side to step in front of the group of five and began to dance. Another group of Arusians had brought out drums and began to play a beat for the Arusian to dance to, Lance was both fascinated and creeped out on how the Arusians toes, were, well, like fingers, it was really creepy, but also, how did they put their weight on their toes?

"Please, there is no need for this-," Allura began, but she was then cut off by the King who halted the dancing Arusian, Moontow, and the music was cut short. Seeing as the Princess was adamant of refusing the dance, he called for some Arusians to begin a fire. A sacrificial fire. Lance was horrified, Hunk looked he was about to puke, Coran and Allura stood there with their mouths wide open, while Keith's eye grew wide. Allura quickly intervened on this, as there was already an Arusian being tied up in the background ready to be dropped into the fire.

So yes, the dance was a better alternative to sacrifices being made in their name.

"Allura, next time when an alien race decides to give us a Dance of Apology, just let them dance," Hunk whispered to the Altean, who only nodded in agreement. The music resumed as did the dance performed by Moontow.

At the end of the dance, the young Arusian gave Allura the same bow as Klaizap had given to her back at the Castle of Lions, and the other Arusians followed suit.

"Please rise, all of you," began Allura. "Thank you for dance, but I am not a great being worthy of your worship. With the events that have transpired these two quintents, I have accidentally put you all in danger. It is I who should be apologizing to you for making you all feel scared of what could happen to you and your home.

"I am Princess Allura, Princess of a planet once known as Altea, and these are the Paladins of Voltron, the being you saw in the sky. Voltron is not here to punish you for any of your wrongdoings, it is here to protect you and others across the universe. Although we may come from different worlds, and carry different traditions, we wish to live alongside the Arusians as friends."

With the end of her declaration, the Arusians let out a cheer and many of them braved themselves to come closer to the group of five, even Keith seemed to relax, if only a little to let an Arusian jump on him and give him a hug. Lance let out a laugh as he heard the Arusian's deep voice coming from such as small body and Keith's shocked face that followed after hearing it. He looked at the others, who each were busy with other Arusians, some had even managed to climb on Hunk's back who looked amused and seemed to enjoy it. Coran was busy throwing the Arusian children up in the air and catching them again, each letting out a cheerful smile and laughter. Allura was busy speaking with the Arusian King, Klaizap, and Moontow, probably discussing the dance that was just performed. Lance smiled as he felt his black suit being pulled by a few Arusian, he was about to speak to them, when one pointed toward the Arusian with the yellow tunic. Confused he glanced back at them, only to feel them pulling him toward her.

Lance had to fight off a flinch as he felt the Arusian stare at him as he made his way toward her under a small tree. Her stare throughout the Dance of Apology had only seemed to grow in intensity as he approached ever closer to her. The two Arusians who had led him to her, pulled at his hands and told him to sit on the ground where he could be at eye level with their village elder, at least he now knew why many of them held the Arusian in high regards. Lance sat on the ground for a few seconds, waiting for the elder to say something to him as the commotion was still being held behind him.

"I am Ulyseon, the elder of the Arusian village," began the Arusian. "You look, tired child, the dark cloud above you is weighing heavily on your shoulders. Your friends carry a cloud of their own, each with their own burden, each with a weight that is holding them back. However, your burden is greater, it would be best if you lessen that burden before you break."

Well if that wasn't ominous, then what was?

"I don't know what you mean," the Cuban began. "I don't carry any burden, at least, I don't think I do."

Lance stared at the elder in confusion, he wanted to say more, ask her more when his head started hurting and the ground began to shake. Lance held onto his head as he felt a pressure of energy trying to make his way into his mind, a familiar presence that Lance couldn't quite place when he heard Keith shout for them to head to the Lions while Allura and Coran directed the Arusians to a safer location. Ignoring the oncoming headache, he ran to Blue, only looking back to see Elder being led by other Arusians to safety. As the Paladins entered their respected Lions, there was an explosion that resonated in the air and shook the ground once more from the last known location of Shiro and Pidge, the three of them flinched, only hoping that their comrades were not hurt. Keith was the one in the lead as the Red Lion was faster than the other two, with the Blue Lion only a few meters away from it and the Yellow not far behind.

"Keith, do you see anything?" asked Hunk.

"I can barely make out what's landed with all the dust in the air, but it's something big, we have to get to Shiro and Pidge now!" responded Keith. "Lance, were you able to open a line of communication with either of them?"

"Just barely, I heard Shiro's voice before it was cut off." Spoke Lance.

"Wait! I got Pidge online. Pidge, are you two okay?"

On the other end of the line, the younger Paladin's voice could be heard over the sound of fighting from their location. "Yeah, some kind of Galran monster landed near us. I think it's a robot, whatever it is, it's freaking strong, get over here quick, we really need to form Voltron."

That seemed to push the three teenagers to rush toward Shiro and Pidge, they arrived just as the Black Lion was being hurled to the ground by the monster that Pidge had told them about. The three Paladins began to fire lasers toward the robot, laying down covering fire so the other two could get out of the situation and away from the monster. As the Blue and Red Lion kept firing at the monster, the Yellow Lion had come up from behind and rammed itself into the monster, knocking it to the ground. The other two Lions joined the others in the sky as the robot was beginning to get back up again.

As they formed Voltron, Lance couldn't enjoy the sensation of their energy resonating, as the headache that had formed seemed to grow in intensity the longer he stayed near the Galran-made robot. He wanted to say something to the rest of the team, but the pain he felt could wait to be dealt with after they defeated whatever this thing is. As Voltron stood in front of the beast, the Blue Paladin hissed as it generated an orb from the emitter-like arm, growing in size before it flings it toward them. At the same time, they jump into the air rolling away from the orb as it passed the right side of Voltron. Keith guided the Red Lion into the robot's emitter as Pidge took a chance and punched the skull-like head of the beast, hoping it would knock it the ground. As the monster lost its footing, the team guided Voltron into the air and brought the Red and Green fists together landing it on the robot's arm, as it blocked their attack, while its other arm called back the orb and made it hit Voltron in the back, sending him crumbling to the ground.

As the orb made contact with Voltron, all Lance saw for a moment was darkness, the pain that was once at a 6 had shot up to a 9, and it seemed to be getting worse the closer the orb and monster were to him. He wasn't sure if any of the other Paladins could feel it, but whatever this pain was, it made Lance wasn't to puke. The five Paladins maneuvered Voltron out of the way at the last second as the orb was going to land on them again. As much as Lance wanted to pay attention to Keith and Hunk as they spoke, the pain that shot through his body overtook his concentration. He could barely make out Pidge's warning about the orb when Lance could feel Voltron being rammed by the beast and knocking them too close to the Arusian village. Another hit by the orb flung Voltron toward the Arusian village, and Voltron fired its jets before it crashes into the small village, rising up into the air leading the monster away from the Arusians and into an open space.

Something about the monster they were going against felt familiar and Lance was not sure why. Each time the orb was sent toward them and hit Voltron sent a shock to Lance's head. The power emitting from it felt like Shiro's arm, but the energy was amplified, stronger, angrier. And this scared him. He kept his eyes on the thing as the others were talking, discussing ideas of what to do against the giant monster that Shiro described as a Gladiator from Zarkon's arena. He heard Keith tell them about Red trying to tell him something, and Lance, really didn't care, he just wanted the pain to stop, so no, he is not sorry for yelling at Keith to hurry up and just do whatever he to do to end this thing. To end his pain.

The orb once again knocked Voltron deeper into the crater it had landed in as the Gladiator made its way toward them, the ground shaking beneath Voltron as it began to get up again. The Gladiator was above them now, the emitter beginning to generate another orb, that Lance could feel would be his last blow. From the corner of his eye, Lance could see the formation of a sword in the fist-like head of the Red Lion. He watched as Keith guided the Red Lion to swing the blade toward the direction of the beast, knocking it to its knees. The Blue Paladin felt Blue send energy toward him, trying to bring down his pain as the beast exploded behind him, and if he wasn't in such pain, he would have commented as to cool guys don't look back at explosions. Man, did he miss his chance to make that joke. Instead he rejoiced with the others, as the pain level slowly decreased, thanks to Blue and the destruction of the Gladiator. Lance let out a small smile, his left hand clutching his head and his right on Blue's controller.

The Lions separated, following Shiro as he led the group to where the Arusian village was to check on them. Lance just wanted to go back to the castle and sleep his headache away, but he had so many questions he wanted to ask the village Elder. Landing in the same location, Lance followed behind everyone else, trying to get his headache to subside a little bit. The closer he got to the village the louder the voices of the Arusians got, and the more the other Paladins seemed to ease up. As the others entered the village, Lance stayed behind for a little and crouched behind a tall bush, placing a hand in front of his mouth trying not to throw up in front of the others. But the need to do so overwhelmed him, and he felt his lunch rise to his throat and out of his mouth. He threw up two more times after, each less than the first, but that didn't stop Lance from feeling disgusted as the smell entered his nose prompting him to gag. He coughed as he finally stopped and began to spit out the rest of the lunch that in his mouth.

Behind him he heard the small steps of what he assumed belonged to Arusian, he turned to see that it was the Elder. She looked at him in pity glancing above his head before staring at his eyes and into his soul.

"Your cloud has grown darker child; you must not let it consume you. You must take control of it before it is too late."

Lance cried; he was confused. He was exhausted.

What was happening to him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't have any notes (asterisks) to add to this chapter.
> 
> I do have a/some question(s) though, how is the dialogue in the story? Should I add more? Or should I add it as needed like I have been doing?
> 
> Sorry about the lateness, I was finishing up my Finals and helping my sister with her schoolwork between my weeklong break before the start of my summer semester. So here is chapter 3.


End file.
